Study on Radiation Shielding Characteristics of Refractory High Entropy Alloys by EpiXS Code

Abstract

Refractory high entropy alloys constituted of refractory alloying elements, such as W, Zr, Nb, Ti, Mo, Ta, and Hf, are of great interest due to their widespread use in areas such as the defense, aerospace, and nuclear power generation industries. Refractory high entropy alloys are one of the subgroups of high entropy alloys and are evaluated as great candidates for replacements of superalloys commonly used at high temperatures due to their good mechanical properties and corrosion and oxidation resistance at high temperatures. The motivation for performing this study is that there is currently no comprehensive analysis of the radiation shielding abilities of this new type of high entropy alloys. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the radiation attenuation parameters such as mass and linear attenuation coefficients, half value layer, mean free path, effective atomic number, and buildup factors of the refractory high entropy alloys, Al_0.5Mo_0.5NbTa_0.5TiZr, Al_0.25NbTaTiZr, HfMoScTaZr, Nb₄₀Ti₂₅Al₁₅V₁₀Ta₅Hf₃W₂, NbCrMo_0.5Ta_0.5TiZr, Ti₂VNbMoZr, and W₂₃Mo₂₃V₁₇Cr₈Ta₇Fe₂₂ by using EpiXS software. The mass attenuation coefficients of the alloys were also calculated by XCOM, a well-known code, to see the consistency of the obtained values. It was concluded that HfMoScTaZr and W₂₃Mo₂₃V₁₇Cr₈Ta₇Fe₂₂ have more shielding features, while Ti₂VNbMoZr has the lowest shielding ability among the alloys.